Things You Need to Know About Mobile Apps

Although web and mobile are two entirely separate platforms, there are several shortcuts you can use to rapidly enhance your web solution with a mobile apps. Today, many businesses that wish to provide a digital service or product to their clients begin with a web app. 

Indeed, web applications operate on any current device, allowing you to reach the broadest possible audience. Web applications, on the other hand, have their limitations: they cannot support mobile-native features, they require constant Internet access, and the more intricate they become, the slower they perform in mobile browsers.

This essay will explain why you might need a mobile app in addition to the online version, as well as what you should keep in mind throughout the ‘conversion’ process.

For most internet businesses, having a mobile presence is a must. As consumers and even B2B clients anticipate the ease of a mobile experience, mobile provides a big, largely unexplored opportunity for many organisations. 

In fact, mobile phones accounted for 56 percent of all online traffic as of July 2021, making it a must-have channel for attracting and engaging clients. When your company is prospering on the web, mobile is the next logical step for expansion.

However, establishing a mobile presence is a difficult undertaking. When you consider the expense of mobile app development, you have to ask yourself whether your organisation actually requires it. Is it possible to debut on mobile without such a hefty first investment?

Let’s look at how businesses of all sizes may enter the mobile space and how modern mobile application development technologies help lower the barrier to entry.

Why Does Your Company Need a Mobile App?

You may be asking why your company needs a mobile app if your clients can already visit your website on their mobile devices. There are numerous major advantages that are not available on the internet.

Use of mobile device features

For many organisations, the primary motive for developing a mobile app is to get access to the vast markets provided by app stores. However, another relatively hidden benefit of developing mobile apps is the ability to leverage mobile-specific functionality.

Mobile applications, which are frequently difficult to use or unavailable on websites, can include advanced authentication, security, biometrics, and other capabilities such as camera functions and geolocation.

Engagement

Mobile applications increase engagement. Push notifications allow you to communicate with clients in a manner that websites cannot. Customers are encouraged to connect with applications and are reminded of crucial deadlines, notifications, and other essential responsibilities.

Aside from alerts, clients are urged to utilise applications since they are always available. While webpages take time to load, applications are already installed and ready to use whenever a consumer need them.

A few seconds of loading time may seem little, but a digital marketing agency examining large volume e-commerce sites discovered that each extra second of load time up to five seconds reduces website conversion rates by an average of 4.42%.

The primary advantage of mobile apps is that they can be loaded immediately on devices, giving clients with an instant, engaging experience.

Personalization

Personalization applications, such as product suggestions, may be a significant source of revenue. While customisation is feasible on the web, mobile offers a plethora of additional chances for personalization that are baked directly into the device: location data, messaging, and alerts.

Meeting your clients where they are, on their mobile devices, and then giving exactly what they need is, to say the least, a sound business approach.

Traditional techniques of developing a mobile app

So, now that you agree that developing applications is a critical business choice, let’s look at the standard way to developing a mobile app. Warning: The time and development expenses may surprise you.

Traditionally, webpages and mobile applications are designed in completely separate and incompatible contexts. Web applications are produced with web tools and languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), whereas conventional mobile apps are written in native languages (Swift, Kotlin, and Objective-C) and built with native development kits offered by Apple and Google.

You can’t just port your online app to mobile using the traditional technique. You must create and manage distinct software for the Web, iOS, and Android.

So, utilising this method, converting a website into a mobile app is virtually the same as starting from scratch. A high-level summary of the stages is provided below: 

• Examine the app’s features.
• Costs should be estimated.
• Recruit a development team.
• Make a fresh app design.
• Create the app
• Deploy the app and submit it for approval.
• Continue to use the app

If you wish to create both an iOS and an Android app, you must repeat the entire procedure. It is costly, time-consuming, and requires a specialised team of expert developers to do the task. Fortunately, modern technologies have come to assist in resolving this issue.

Native vs. Hybrid: Which App Should You Create From Your Website?

There are two types of mobile apps you may create:

• Native applications
• Hybrid Applications

Let’s go through these in greater depth.

Native

Native applications are the original, conventional apps created from the ground up for the iOS and Android platforms. Native developers that are skilled and specialised are in great demand. Objective-C or Swift are used by iOS developers, whereas Java and Kotlin are used by Android developers.

There is also the option of employing React Native or similar cross-platform solution to reduce work and price. Native applications have the benefit of providing the best levels of performance if you require an app that will do a lot of hard work, such as Uber or Airbnb.

They also provide the most access to the device’s native functions, such as the accelerometer, GPS, and facial recognition, but web technologies are catching up in this area with the emergence of progressive web apps.

The disadvantages of native apps include the high cost and delay to market. Even basic native applications take months to develop, cost $80,000+ for iOS and Android, and are a highly technical undertaking.

They also give you two new channels to handle and maintain in the future, which is a significant amount of extra effort and money. Native apps are only useful if you want particular, native-only functionalities and have huge funds.

When it comes to converting a website into mobile applications, a native app almost never makes sense if you want apps that are identical to your site.

Hybrid

Hybrid applications are a mix between a website and a native app, hence the name. Hybrid applications are simply a native container (the native app element) that shows online content (CSS, JavaScript, HTML) when utilised and allow you to transform your website into apps utilising completely web-based technologies.

However, hybrid applications are more than “simply” shells with webpages inside of them; from the user’s perspective, they may act and feel just like native apps, and can employ native components and capabilities to provide an excellent app user experience.

Performance is a well-known potential disadvantage of hybrid apps, especially if you wish to develop something really demanding from the ground up, such as the next Spotify or Coinbase.

However, hybrid and web technology has advanced significantly in the last five years, and if you want to turn your website into applications with comparable capabilities and construct a decent hybrid app, this is no longer an issue.

How to Embed Web App into Mobile App?

Create your own mobile app (native/hybrid).

This is for those of you who can put together an internal team capable of developing a mobile app.

Hire a freelancer to create a native or hybrid mobile app.

This is for those of you who want to outsource mobile app development to a developer with the necessary competence but don’t want to pay the fees associated with working with an agency. If you’re lucky and discover a wonderful match, it can pay off, but if you’re not, it can turn into a nightmare.

Hire a mobile app development firm to construct the app (native/hybrid).

This is for companies who wish to delegate app development to a professional firm and take a hands-off approach. This is the way that large corporations frequently pursue since, despite the enormous cost, it may be less expensive than recruiting and more dependable than the freelancing option.

Using a DIY app builder, create your app (hybrid)

This is for anyone who wants to develop their own software but lacks coding skills, has plenty of time, and wants to keep costs to a minimum. In this arena, you may discover platforms like Appy Pie and GoodBarber, as well as more specialised solutions like AppPresser that focus on converting particular types of websites to mobile applications.

These tools can be useful for certain reasons, and they tend to generate simple apps that are workable but lack advanced web capabilities, limiting you to pre-built templates and themes.

They normally function by having you create a drag-and-drop app (similar to thousands of others, but with your logo) and then using RSS or an API to fetch material from your site and display it in the app. They do not completely convert your website into applications; they only do it in a limited capacity.